USC 116
|Row 3 title = Participants |Row 3 info = 45 |Row 4 title = Debuting countries |Row 4 info = None |Row 5 title = Returning countries |Row 5 info = , , , |Row 6 title = Withdrawing countries |Row 6 info = , , , |Row 7 title = Winner |Row 7 info = "Wanted" Ben Hazlewood |Row 8 title = Timeline |Row 8 info = ◄ Soroca 115 Brisbane 117 ► }}Universong 116 was the one hundred and sixteenth edition of the Universong Contest, held in Dublin, Ireland. This was the fourth Irish production of the contest made in Ireland, and it was held between November 22nd and December 10th, 2018, and it was possible after the winning of Kodaline with the song "Follow your fire" on the previous edition held in Soroca, Moldova. Indeed, the tagline of this edition was inspired on the title of the reigning champion song. The three shows were hosted by singers and musician Steve Garrigan and Una Healy. Garrigan is the vocalist of Kodaline and Healy is a former member of The Saturdays, both of whom were entered to the Universong Contest before. 45 countries were competing this edition, with the returns of China, Kosovo, Luxembourg and Sweden. At the end of the voting, Australia was declared the winner of the Universong Contest. Ben Hazlewood became the eighth USC double champion and the second in succession, as well as the first double champion who won both in a duet and solo. This time, Hazlewood won with the song "Wanted", a great favourite from the early beginning who also won the first semifinal, becoming an absolute winner. Indeed, it won both votings from finalists and non-finalists, ultimately collecting 244 points and nine sets of 12 points (namely from Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Hungary, Israel, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands and the USA). In the other hand, Moldova consolidated a great moment in Universong, getting his best position since two editions ago, when Carla's Dreams won. In this ocassion, Sunstroke Project earned the runner-up position with the song "Sun gets down", that got 147 points and two sets of maximum points (from Austria and Latvia), and thus securing the third longest gap between winner and runner-up, since the Moldovan band and Hazlewood got 97 points of difference, right after the 100-point gap between Loïc Nottet and Eivor Palsdottir in USC 93, and the 99-point between Álvaro Soler and Dua Lipa in USC 89. The third place was earned by Brazil. Alok and Ina Wrodlsen entered the South American country with the song "Favela". It got 144 points in total, 100 points less than the winner and only 3 points less than the runner-up, and with no sets of maximum points. The remainder of the top 10 was completed by the songs of Luxembourg, Kosovo, Israel, England, San Marino, Austria and Vatican City. About the city Dublin (/ˈdʌblɪn/; Irish: Baile Átha Cliath11 aːhə ˈclʲiə; ˌbʲlʲaː ˈclʲiə) is the capital and largest city in Ireland.1213 The city is on the east coast of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, at the mouth of the River Liffey, and is bordered on the south by the low mountains. It has an urban area population of 1,173,179,7 while the population of the Dublin Region (formerly County Dublin), as of 2016, was 1,347,359,6 and the population of the Greater Dublin area was 1,904,806.14 There is archaeological debate regarding precisely where Dublin was established by Celtic-speaking people in the 7th century AD.15 Later expanded as a Viking settlement, the Kingdom of Dublin, the city became Ireland's principal settlement following the Norman invasion.15 The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest city in the British Empirebefore the Acts of Union in 1800. Following the partition of Ireland in 1922, Dublin became the capital of the Irish Free State, later renamed Ireland. Dublin is a historical and contemporary centre for education, the arts, administration and industry. As of 2018 the city was listed by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) as a global city, with a ranking of "Alpha -", which places it amongst the top thirty cities in the world.1617 Semifinal 1 In this semifinal, the semifinalists plus shall vote in this semifinal. will decide in which semifinal it'll vote. The rest of the countries can vote too, but their votes will be counted as Rest of the World. Semifinal 2 In this semifinal, the semifinalists plus shall vote in this semifinal. will decide in which semifinal it'll vote. The rest of the countries can vote too, but their votes will be counted as Rest of the World. Grand Final Split Results Category:Universong Contest